Marriage equality defender speaks at Santa Cruz eighth-graders

Santa Cruz >> Kris Perry took her fight to marry the woman she loved all the way to the land's highest court.

On Friday, her inquisitive audience was of a different — and much younger — stripe.

"What was the opposition, what was their argument, was there a time when you thought you weren't going to make it?"

Some two dozen of Gateway School's eighth grade humanities class, in the midst of a three-week civil rights unit, peppered Perry with a series of questions about her modern-day civil rights struggle for marriage equality.

Perry, a UC Santa Cruz alumna, fought alongside her partner, another couple and a team of lawyers and supporters for five years against the 2008 statewide Proposition 8, which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry. Proposition 8 was ultimately deemed unconstitutional in June 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal of a lower court ruling.

Perry's name is immortalized in the court case's title, "Perry vs. Hollingsworth."

"The best thing I've heard anybody say about this case or about any constitutional battle that has ever been waged is you win because you choose to fight these battles," Perry told the class. "They are something individuals or groups choose to do because they recognize that their constitutional rights have been violated in some way ... They don't just happen to you. Normally, someone doesn't knock on your door and say, 'Hi, want to fight a constitutional battle with me?'"

Perry serves as executive director of First Five Years Fund in Washington and was invited to speak at the private school by a parent. While answering students' questions about opposition to same-sex marriage, Perry took an even-handed approach.

"There a lots of people with different beliefs," she said. "There are some folks whose religious beliefs are very strongly in favor of traditional marriage and very against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) marriage. And they're worried that there will be some blurring of their beliefs with the educational system."

When explaining her confidence level during a series of court battles ending at the nation's highest court, Perry said she and partner Sandy Stier "were worried most of the time, usually," knowing they needed five out of nine Supreme Court Justices to side with their case.

A male student appeared surprised to find out the public can attend Supreme Court hearings for free, asking, "You can just go in and buy a ticket, like it's a show?" The class affirmed with "yays" when teacher Sherri Helvie asked if they would like to visit the court when they take their upcoming field trip to Washington.

Perry earned laughter from the class and adult participants when she described the justices as similar to the class — some squirming, some thinking about other things, others intently focused.

"That's how they are. There was absolutely one or two justices who looked bored — really bored," Perry said. "And then there were some who, this was the day that weren't going to let pass without making a contribution. They were on their Ps and Qs."